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Friday, February 3, 2017

On Strike! Oh, no

Dad was a union man. I joke that his politics were to the left of
Leon Trotsky — an exaggeration not without
justification. He railed against the excesses of capitalism and
the difficulties faced by the working man and woman.
He received the annual Friend of Labor award from the Alabama
AFL-CIO (Alabama being the most unionized state in the South)
and consulted for the AFL-CIO on unemployment compensation into
his 80s. Aside from family, the largest contingent at his funeral
were representatives of organized labor.

Reluctantly I differ with Dad on one point. In my travels to Europe
I am often confronted by one
kind of "labor action" or another in the transportation sector.
Sometimes it's an airline, sometimes it's rail, sometimes it's
mass transit. Next week, for example, much of the London Underground
system — the "Tube" — will be
unserved or underserved because of a strike. Is it ethical for a
relatively small number of people to inflict inconvenience or even
financial loss on millions of citizens, just as a way to
resolve a workplace dispute? I'm doubtful. Hostage-taking is
reprehensible.

I'm reminded of the
1981 strike by air traffic controllers in the U.S., who didn't
appreciate the difference between then-new President Ronald Reagan and
previous President Jimmy Carter. Reagan noted that each of the 11,345
controllers had signed a sworn affidavit promising
never to strike. He fired them all. The union collapsed
but more importantly the American economy carried on.

That kind of reaction has been unthinkable in Western Europe…
until now. Watch what happens if the UK and France follow
the U.S. by handing control to UKIP and the National Front,
respectively. It could happen.